Friday, May 27, 2011

I know I promised to write at least once a week but with my Dad in the hospital, he's gotten worse, I just haven't given much thought to it. Today, however, I'm home and can't visit Dad because I have a killer cough and they won't let me into ICU. He just had a stent put in and tomorrow goes in for triple bypass surgery so we take no chances with even the slightest possibility of his catching something from me. While I'm sitting here, twiddling my thumbs and toes and coughing, I thought I'd tell you about a few things.

New friends can be found in the strangest places. While standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for your coffee at Starbucks, getting your nails done or bringing in some shirts to the Cleaners. Well, there I am, sitting in the Surgical/ICU waiting room earlier this week, with one of my best friends, Deb, waiting for Pops to come back from a "procedure" so I can brush his hair and get it into a comfortable pony tail. Yup, my old man's a hippie from way back when and his hair is past his shoulders. LOL But that's another story.

Anyway, while sitting around, naturally we start talking to each other and to the other people in the waiting room. It turns out that one of the women sitting there is a fellow beader and jewelry maker. But wait, she also lives in the condo complex right next to my development! Talk about your small world. What's more, she has an Etsy shop, ElegantNFunky, and is a member of the Florida Etsy Street Team. So how come I have to go to a hospital waiting room to meet someone I should have met awhile ago? Well, it really is a big, small world, and we make it larger by not reaching out when we get the chance.

I've been making jewelry for 3 years now, been a member of FEST for almost as long and should have known that some of my fellow FEST members may just live nearby. So, I urge you to go check out who's really in your local guild, whether you make jewelry, sew clothes, crochet, knit, craft, paint or sculpt, really look around at the members and see who just might be your neighbor.

As I said, friends can be found in the strangest places, but only if you really look.